Marcos: USD19B investments create over 200K jobs

President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., in his third State of the Nation Address on Monday, highlighted that current investment commitments would create more than 202,000 jobs for Filipinos.

The President emphasized that partnerships with like-minded states have led to attracting investments from foreign sources, resulting in USD19 billion worth of actualized projects from recent trips abroad.

As of the first half of 2024, the Board of Investments (BOI) and the Philippine Economic Zone Authority logged PHP950 billion and PHP45.48 billion in pledges respectively, up 36% from P698 billion in the same period last year.

The President also reported that the country's poverty rate dropped to 15.5 percent in 2023 from 18 percent in 2021, with almost 2.5 million Filipinos lifted out of poverty and a reduction of about 1.7 million individuals without enough food.

To sustain economic gains, Marcos said the government has put in place policies like reforms in capital markets and implementation of 'green lanes,' resulting in certification for around a hundred projects worth PHP3 trillion across sectors such as renewable energy, digital infrastructure, food security, and manufacturing.